The Girl in the Tunnels
by Frank Hunter
Summary: You step into the Muddy Rudder and sit down next to a local man. You start speaking to each other, and it seems he has a story he wants to tell. You decide to listen to his tale about the girl in the tunnels. Reviews are greatly appreciated.
1. Introductions

**The Girl in the Tunnels  
Chapter 1: Introductions****  
**By, Frank Hunter

You…

…well hello there! You're certainly not a familiar face! And I reckon I would know. I spend a lotta time in the Muddy Rudder these days, yes sir. Muddy Rudder's the _best_ place to be in Rivet City by far! Food, friends, booze, nothin' else a man needs! Here, lemme buy ya a drink. What'll ya have? Uh huh…

Hey barkeep! Two rum and Nuka-Colas, and make it fast. Thanks, doll.

So what's your name, stranger? Uh huh. You can call me Frank. Pleasure to, ah, make your acquaintance suh! Haha! Oh man, you crack me up. Really, it's good to see a new face though. You don't live in Rivet City do you? Where do you hail from?

…what do you mean it's complicated?

…oh, so you're a waste wanderer. That's not complicated man; I did that myself for years, I know how it is. Haven't been out for a while though. No real need to leave once you've settled down in Rivet City, really. But before I settled down I had quite the wanderin' career of my own. Seen a lot of freak-key shit out there in the wastes, too. Ever run into a rad-raccoon? Well consider yourself lucky. Take my advice, if you ever do you just remember one word: Mentats. You'll thank me. Ah, our drinks…

Here's to…uh…to alcohol! For bein' slightly less poisonous than our water supply! Bottoms up!

…

Ahh, delicious. So where have you been scavenging around? …Dupont Circle? My hat's off to you, friend. That place is a powder keg. I mean, I know the Brotherhood's workin' on it, but still, Super Mutants were always a bit much for my meek and relaxed personality. I'm a lover man, not a fighter. Ahahah! I kid though, I got my share of action in back in the day.

…where? Oh, I used to hang around up by Woodley Park. …Nah, I wouldn't expect you to know it. It's where all those rich motherfuckers used to live it up in pre-war times. Ritsy stuff. A few of the buildings are still intact, too. It's nice. Was, anyway. Those metro tunnels caved in years ago, right after………well, never mind about that.

…nah, you wouldn't want to hear the story. It's been a long time since I've thought about it. Tell you the truth, it's right painful. It's the reason I don't roam the wastes anymore. I just didn't have it in me, not after………look it's a long story. Longer than that drink'll take you anyway, heh.

…well, I know there's a lot worse going on in the wastes but…

…you're very pushy.

Maybe we could just go up to the flight deck and watch the baseball team practice a little. D'jyou know Rivet City has its own baseball team? Yeah, they're right up there! We'll just…

Ugh, alright. If you get the next round, I suppose I could spare a few words about what happened up in Woodley Park.

It started like any other day. My life was pretty damn straightforward, right up until the minute I first laid eyes on her. The girl in the tunnels. After I saw her, everything changed forever…


	2. Settling Down

**The Girl in the Tunnels  
Chapter 2: Settling Down****  
**By, Frank Hunter

There were three of us back then. It was me, Rat, and Tony. Tony and me were twelve years old, and Rat was thirteen. Heh, we always called him 'pops.' He hated that so much. It's funny how age is such a big thing to kids. Rat became kind of our undisputed leader, just cause he popped out a year earlier. None of us really cared though. It's not like any of us _wanted _to be leader, you know? Rat just kind of took it on, and we just kind of accepted it.

I found Rat a year earlier in the metro lines just south of Pentagon City. Middle of nowhere, right? We were both kids, scrounging the lines, just trying to survive. Don't even ask me how I got there. Yeah, I had parents once. Everyone did. I'm pretty sure there was even a house in some town or another out in the wastes. Probably a pretty cozy life. I could have been a city boy! Heh, imagine that. I don't really remember, though. Something happened in the town. I guess it was a Raider attack. Must have put the place over the edge, cause I remember panicking, explosions, running and at some point losing my parents' hands. I don't know if they're still alive or not, but I wouldn't put money on it, ya'know what I mean?

I survived in the metro tunnels and sewers, living off rats and radroaches, and eventually found Rat doing the same. His story is similar, I won't bore you with the details, but he told me he was headed up north. You gotta understand there were always ghouls and muties in those tunnels, not to mention regular people. We dodged them too. Who knows what they would have wanted with kids like us? We really thought we were tough, but both of us knew better than to try and take any of 'em on by ourselves. Anyway, Rat had heard that things were better up north, you know, less 'crowded,' so he was workin' his way up there. I decided to go with him, and we started a slow trek through D.C.

Spendin' that much time in the tunnels, two things happen. First, your hearing gets really, _really_ good. Second, you become pretty sharp about avoiding the muties and ferals. I had about a dozen tricks up my sleeve when I heard the _thud, thud, thud_ that meant something was runnin' in our direction. That's not to say we didn't have some close calls, or even close encounters, but Rat had come across a laser rifle on one of them dead Super Mutants before he met me. Kept the damn thing strapped across his back. He didn't have to use it very much, frankly we were always afraid the battery'd run out, so we tried really hard to stay hidden. Mostly on my account though, he blasted his share of ferals to kingdom come.

I got better after those first couple of months and we both became real comfortable in the dark. Could hide in a split second if we felt trouble comin,' and we did feel it a lot. Problem is, movin' through the dark tunnels like that, you usually ain't sure exactly where you're goin,' and you ain't movin' very fast. We were in the D.C. ruins for a lot longer than we really wanted to be. But, because of a wrong turn somewhere or other, we managed to run into Tony too.

We ducked into the dark one time, and it wasn't a mutie or some slaver runnin' by, but just another kid like us. Rat decided to risk callin' out to him, something we'd never do again, and Tony stopped. I think we decided that three was enough. I think we were afraid that any more would be pushin' it.

Tony was the same story one more time. He had other plans, though. He'd heard of some town that he was callin' 'Little Lamplight.' A town strictly for kids, run by kids. Yeah, I still don't believe it, but he had a map showin' kind of where it was. I stress 'kind of,' because Tony couldn't read the map and the marker was very vague. Only one thing was for sure: it was on the complete other side of the Capital Wastelands with no train lines heading out there. Surface running to an unknown place seemed like a long gamble for three kids like us, so young and barely armed. Rat and I just refused to do it, and Tony _almost_ went on his merry way. But, the idea of company won out, and he came with us instead.

The original plan was to move all the way up the red metro line to a place that Rat knew as 'Shady Grove.' Don't sound too promising, I know, but he said that was our best bet and as our unofficial leader and the man with the plan, Rat knew the best. Problem was, as we got just north of Dupont Circle…hey that's your neighborhood, right? Heh. Just north of Dupont Circle the tunnel was blocked by a train wreck that pretty much spanned the whole damn thing. We tried to pass through, but none of us (not even Tony, who was the smallest) was gonna climb through all that. We needed time to clear the way, and so we got kind of a temporary residence set up for us over there. Back then there was still a station open up there. That was Woodley Park.

Knowing we'd be staying for a while, we took a couple of expeditions to the surface. There were a couple of hotels up there, and without much effort and _too_ much risk, we broke into a few windows and made off with supplies. Mattresses, blankets, Nuka-Cola, magazines, it was all still intact up there. We dragged as much into the station as we could, packed it against the wall, and piled rubble around it to camouflage ourselves. We even found a working radio. Life was good. Maybe a little too good.

Problem is, the longer we worked on opening up the train wreck, the more we came to realize that there wasn't much traffic up in Woodley Park. We maybe had one person pass by every couple of days? And even then, it was usually a regular man. Some ferals ran through from time to time but yeah, mostly just people, and no Super Mutants. The longer we stayed, the more we just wanted to stay, and the lazier we got with the trains. Shady Grove became just a word, and Woodley Park became more and more like home…


	3. The Radio

**The Girl in the Tunnels  
Chapter 3: The Radio****  
**By, Frank Hunter

We lived it up over there, the three of us. We got along just fine, always cooperated, always worked together to do 'most anything. A lever needed to get pulled, and six hands were on it, you know? We even had a name for our little gang: the Three Musketeers! Imagine that? Haha! …what's that? What's the Three Musketeers? Boy, you must have had your head in some radiated ground for most of your life! Let me tell you a quick story.

Back before the war, on some island called 'France,' there was this writer named Alexandre Dumas. He was damn good. I never read any of his books myself, but Rat said that the man could tell a story, and I believe him. But one day he was at his desk, countin' somethin' called montey cristoes, when he decides he's hungry. Rumor has it Dumas was a big man with a big appetite, so he goes into his pantry to get himself a snack. Yeah, I guess writers didn't do much writing back then. Anyway, there was nothin' doin' in there. All he's got is sugar and sweets, so he pulls 'em out and starts experimentin' with his pots and pans. What he winds up with is this bar of candy that is absolutely delicious. One bite, and you're in like, ecstasy! The three ingredients he put in there worked so well together, that Dumas called the candy bar the Three Musketeers.

The three of us were exactly like that candy bar! We worked so well together that we were like one, well-greased engine. We were always in agreement, except over one small thing. The only thing we really fought about was the radio.

The radio only picked up one station up there: Galaxy News Radio, but that was enough. I would be happy to listen for hours on end to the music they were playin.' I'll never forget when we first turned it on. Back then, Three Dog was rantin' and ravin' about some doctor who cracked into one of those VaultTec Vaults. Uh, 101 I think it was. Funny, I think I heard somethin' the other day about some kid breakin' _out_ of 101. Heh, those fellas need to get their heads screwed on a little better, or at least their door bolted up a little tighter! Where was I…

Oh yeah, well I loved listenin' to the radio. Would listen for hours on end if I got the chance. Problem was that it pissed Rat off somethin' awful. He'd tell me that we couldn't do that. He said that the noise would bring the muties and the raiders down on us. Said we should just turn it on once in a while for news. Now I respect his argument, I even did back then I think, but I was a kid and I liked my radio. It just made things happier when it was on, and it never did actually bring anyone down on us, and the longer that that didn't happen, the more I was convinced that it wouldn't. Tony was more on Rat's side of the argument, but he never pushed too hard because, well, he liked listening too.

The fights we had over that radio were pretty bad. I think the screamin' would have been more likely to bring someone down on us, to tell you the truth. When it was over, it would usually result in Rat stormin' away to blow off some steam on the surface. Tony and me never really minded that. He'd usually cool me down while Rat was gone and by the time he came back, I'd turn off the music. Rinse and repeat every few days or so.

Also, while Rat was on the surface, he'd usually find some cool pre-war stuff. When he came back he'd have cooled off too, and he'd have something new to show us. Usually it was innocent; a doll, or one of them Jewish candle things for example. One time though, he came back with something much less than innocent and I wish he'd left the damn thing where he found it.

Rat never told us exactly where that was, but the thing he came back with was one of those mini-nukes the Enclave is so fond of using. Ugh, we were so stupid. As kids, we thought it was the coolest thing in the world. We had the power of the Enclave, right there in our little hands in our little subway station. We even built a little shrine to the thing in the ticket booth, and left it standing up on a table where we could look at it whenever we needed a power trip. I guess it was kind of like those fanatics over in Megaton, if you've ever made your way out in that direction. The thought never crossed our minds that the thing could actually explode though. It was just our golden calf.

Back to the radio though, because that's what started the whole mess. Those fights went on for weeks, maybe even a couple of months. Every time Rat told me to turn it off, and every time I refused. Well one day, he'd had enough. We were down in the tunnels that day, and I wanted to listen while we worked. Made the time go faster, in my opinion. I refused to turn it off and this time, instead of storming off, Rat grabbed it and threw it into the trains.

Now my eyes went wide and I chased after it. Thankfully he didn't break the thing; I probably would have lunged at his neck if that were the case, but I could still hear it. He'd clanged the dial against something and changed the station so it was just projecting static, but I followed the sound into the wreck to try and get my radio back. Rat naturally followed me to try and finish the job.

I got there first, picked the thing up and clutched it to my chest. Rat jumped me to the ground and tried to wrestle it from me, and Tony was right there trying to pull the two of us apart. Now Rat was the bigger guy, and he would have gotten it from me if that had kept up, but in the middle of it we heard something we never would have expected to hear. The static on the radio cleared up and for a second I thought that Rat might have turned it off, or worse, broke it. But, from the now silent radio, a voice began to speak. A girl's voice.

It asked 'Hello?' and we stopped dead. Rat backed off and I dropped the radio and scurried backward on my ass. Thought the thing was talking to me. The three of us met eyes before looking back at the radio, both willing it to say more and afraid that it would.

Of course, it did. 'Please,' the radio urged, 'if anyone can hear this, my name is Artemis. I'm at the…' she sounded like she was reading, 'Duke Ellington Bridge. I need help.'

We sat in silence for some time. She was repeating herself on the radio, and none of us really knew what to do. Rat and I forgot about our scuffle, and I was too dumbstruck to even get up off the ground. It was Tony who finally broke the silence. 'So,' he said, 'what do we do?'


	4. d’Artagnan

**The Girl in the Tunnels  
Chapter 4: d'Artagnan  
**By, Frank Hunter

Well we had a little bit of a discussion about it, but after a few minutes it was the Three Musketeers to the rescue. We got a move on, but you know better than anyone, when you're out in the Wastes you gotta keep up a little bit of caution. We were afraid that the broadcast might be a trick; that maybe someone knew about our little hideout and was trying to flush us out. After all, the odds that our radio would land on the right frequency to catch that message were very slim. But, in the end, none of us could quite pass up on the chance to help a real live damsel in distress.

Rat grabbed his rifle and the three of us were off. We'd scouted the area above ground quite a bit in the months before the message came, and knew about two bridges. We didn't know either of their names, but we were lucky enough to come across the right one first.

…Don't give me that tired look. I know you're waitin' for the action here, but what can I tell you? We were three very adept kids, and like I said before, we were great hiders. You asked for this story, now hear it told proper. Trust me when I say that picking up Artemis had its consequences, and I'll get to that soon. In the meanwhile, I think it's about time for that next drink. …Heh, thanks pal.

Anyway like I was sayin,' we got to the bridge late that afternoon. We were movin' low and slow, in case of the muties and in case it was actually a trap. I don't think any of us were really expectin' a girl to be waitin' for us. Course, that would change once we got there.

We stepped onto the bridge. I remember passin' by a sign hangin' by one corner. 'Crisis Counseling,' it said. 'There is hope, make the call.' I remember findin' it funny that the girl might have seen the sign. Mighta' hoped she'd get crisis counseling. Only difference is when she called, she got us. Not sure how much help we gave, but hell, at least we had shelter. And good company. That's gotta count for somethin,' right? I mean, it gets so cold in the Wastes by yourself…

Huh…

Well the plan was to cross and keep an eye out for the girl, then double back and hit up the second bridge before dark. Turned out that wasn't necessary. We heard her before we saw her. She was broadcasting from inside a road wreck, between two smashed up cars.

Took a little coaxing to get her to come out, but once we did I think the three of us agreed: she was the most beautiful thing we'd ever seen. I can't even describe We were young and horny, true, but we really wanted to be gentlemen and Musketeers, so none of us did anything stupid. We helped her up. We brushed her off. Introductions went around, and that's when I learned her name was Artemis. I thought then and I think now that the name is a thing of beauty all on its own. When it's coupled with that tall, thin and blonde creature …damn man, we were overwhelmed.

Artemis was a little older than us. She was thin like I said, tanned and had a smile that you could swear stretched from ear to ear, though we never saw it too much. Her hair dropped down to her waist, and she was well fed and healthy. She had some hiding skills of her own too, and kept up with us on the way home.

To be frank, the girl was full of secrets, and kept very quiet that first night. She wouldn't even tell us her right age. Maybe she didn't know, but we were all curious, especially Rat. I had a million other questions to ask her that night too, but with her silence I decided to save 'em. It was a long day, and I thought she would do well to get a little rest without having to tell stories. After all, we'd have plenty of time for stories later. None of us was goin' anywhere.

We made it home again without problems. Rat shot a radroach, but I think that was more to impress our new friend then out of any threat to us. All the way home, he could hardly keep his eyes off her. God, that bothered me. But, I'll get to that. In the meantime, we got back after a quick pit stop at the hotel. We'd dragged out a new mattress and downstairs we set up a fourth bed.

That night, for the first time ever, we had a girl in the tunnels. I think the three of us slept like babies, happy with ourselves for how well we'd done. Our guest…well, I don't think she ever really slept that well…


	5. Let the Past Lie

**The Girl in the Tunnels  
Chapter 5: Let the Past Lie  
**By, Frank Hunter

I could tell you Artemis seduced me, but by the look on your face I gotta say I don't think you'd believe it. Heh. You know it wouldn't take much seducing for the little kid I was, but that's not really how it went. She _chose_ me though, for sort of her comrade, and as the days went on we became close.

…stop lookin' at me like that, chief. No, we didn't, and you're sick for thinkin' about that in a story about children. Ought to report you to the freakin' Brotherhood, I should.

Heh, relax chief I'm only playin' you. No, we didn't get to that kind of thing, as much as I'd wanted to, but we did do a lot of talkin.' We took forays up to the surface at nightfall and musta had about a dozen little nests where we could stare up at the stars and talk. Most of it was about my life in the DC and Pentagon tunnels. I could talk for hours if you get me goin.' I bet you've figured that out already, huh?

…I appreciate your enthusiasm.

Anyway she always listened. I'd thought you were supposed to let girls speak when you were around 'em. Rat had told me once that if you did all the talkin' and they didn't get to open their mouths for a while, they'd become some kind of rad-demon eat your soul right out of ya. Whoo, that image kept me up some of those early nights, let me tell you, but that never happened. Artemis, she liked to listen, and I liked to talk, so it worked out well most night. Eventually though, I got her to go a little bit about herself.

She'd had a family too, a pops anyway. There used to be a little community up there in Woodley Park. Like I told ya, it was a very well maintained place. She made it sound really nice, at least for a while. The place went downhill when some gang of slavers moved in through, you guessed it, the metro tunnels. They popped up and set up shop overnight in some park, tradin' with some of the locals from the less happy places nearby. They raided the buildings and took the people who lived there, sellin' 'em off for profit. It's nothin' you and me haven't seen a hundred times in the Wastes, but it was a cryin' shame for the people up there.

When the slavers raided Artamis' home, her dad fought 'em tooth and nail. She said "he went down blazin.'" That's her words. But, he couldn't beat 'em all, and they dropped him eventually. Artemis they took as a slave. Now I don't know what happened to her while she was with them, so don't ask. I certainly never did, because it ain't usually a good idea to open up old wounds. Sometimes you just gotta let the past lie. I told her that, I did, but Artemis didn't listen too good when it came to advice.

She said that after her dad died, she got really close to the other people she was in that jail with. She and the other slaves became like family, while they were trapped together, you know? They finished raisin' her, and it was like they filled the gap left by her dead dad. I think, with Rat, I could relate to that same kind of thing.

What she said is that her family there is the ones who helped her escape. She said they got her out of that place, slipped her through a crack or something. Sent her out to find help, to save the rest of 'em. She said that was why she was talkin' over the radio. She was hopin' to find some group of people like her pa. Some group that would be willing to help, that could get her family out of there. She wasn't expectin' to find kids like us. And what she said after that will always be crystal clear in my memory, cause she touched my hand when she did it. "Frankie," she said, "I don't want to hurt you, but I need your help." It's the only time a girl's ever asked me for help, and the gentleman I was wanted to say yes. Problem was, the kid I was was scared shitless. Go up against slavers? Hah, yeah right. What I told Artemis, and to this day I wish I hadn't, was that we had a great life. We were safe, comfortable, and not alone. Maybe we ought to just live that life, and let the past go, and let the rest of the world be.

I thought I was spewin' smarts, but maybe even then I could tell that she really wasn't listening to me. Her shoulders were slumped then, as they were often, but now I know that she was already figurin' out her next move…


	6. The Triangle

**The Girl in the Tunnels  
Chapter 6: The Triangle  
**By, Frank Hunter

I knew she was plannin' to go by herself. It was obvious after that night, know what I mean? Artemis started givin' me the cold shoulder, which of course only made me chase after her even more. She'd head up to the surface, and I'd go after her, if only to stop her from gettin' hurt. But that's not what she wanted. I think I frustrated her pretty bad those days, but I kept bringin' her back safe, and as long as I kept my eyes open, I could keep her from gettin' into too much trouble.

Course I didn't know too much about love back then. We might not have really been in love, we were kids as I keep sayin', but love is kinda like a flower…

…shut the hell up, it's not queer. I'm makin' a point.

Love's like a flower I said, and wherever it grows, jealousy comes too like a fuckin' weed. In this case, jealousy sprouted in Rat.

I knew he hated the time she spent with me. I knew he was jealous of it. Rat wanted a girl just like any of us, maybe more. He always felt like he had something to prove, but that' don't make it right. What he did was unforgivable

I know now that Rat followed us, Artemis and me. I know he listened to us. His eyes were _green_ friend, understand? But I couldn't see it, cause I was focused somewhere else. On the blonde hair and the soft skin and all the shit that I never got to myself. When I wouldn't help her, the girl turned elsewhere. The tunnels were small after all, and there were only three of us. Rat musta told her he wanted to help, told her whatever she wanted to hear. But the truth was more that he was pissed. He wanted to get me 'cause she'd picked me first. And the best way he could get me was through her.

She left one night like she did so many times, and I followed her like I did to bring her back and stop her from doin' somethin' stupid. But when I got to the top of the stairs out of our station, they were long ones, lemme tell you, I came out the gate and took a hit on the back of my head. I can still feel that hit, right here. It almost put me out cold. It did put me down. I got another one in the mouth after I fell and I couldn't move.

'Stop it!' I heard Artemis call after the second one. 'Leave him.'

There was a second when nothin' happened, but then I saw Rat leanin' over me. I couldn't believe it, you know? Rat never hurt neither of us before. He was our brother, our pops. I almost couldn't understand it.

'You should mind your business, Frankie,' he said to me. Or maybe he told me not to fuck with him. I don't remember. I saw them start to head off down the street before my brain decided it was a good time for a nap

Every kid's gotta learn betrayal out in the Wastes, no? You can't trust anybody. That's a way of life. It's hard to learn that the first time. I just wish it hadn't been so bad for us. We were over after that, you know? Even if we played pretend a little while longer, it wasn't gonna be like it was.

I woke up a little while later. Tony came out when he realized we'd all been gone for a while. He shook me up and brought me some water. When I came to, I told him. I told him everything that happened, what Rat had done, and that I thought he was gonna help Artemis try a jailbreak in the slaver camp. It was too dangerous for them. We both figured that, and though I didn't care much for Rat at that moment, I still cared deep for Artemis, and neither of us really wanted to see the two of them get killed.

We armed ourselves as best we could, which is to say we were carryin' poles and rocks, and thought we were ready to start a war with some grown-ass Raiders. Christ, it was stupid. But it was a girl, man. You do stupid shit for girls, and when we were armed up to the teeth (hahaha), we started off down the street in the direction I'd seen them go. We'd save 'em, and bring the group back together. Tony and me could do anything.


End file.
